What is it like to be “Free”?
All my life, I have searched for freedom.
I was free when I was younger, and I lost that freedom when my father died, and I had to take care of my family.
Then, I was free until I married, and I re-constructed what it meant to be free within marriage. I found a way to be free, then my marriage ended.
I was free again. I met a man who I thought understood my need to be free, and instead, that man made me a prisoner. I eventually broke free again.
Now I live in Portugal. Every morning, when I walk the cliffs, I feel free. I feel light.
“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” ~ Toni Morrison in Beloved
I discovered from feeling free and not feeling free that freedom isn’t a place. It isn’t dependent on who you’re with.
Freedom is a state of being that comes from within. You can be free wherever you are and with whoever you are with.
Your choice is to decide how long you will stay in that state of freedom, which may differ from what you require now.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”~ Victor Frankel, Man’s Search for Meaning
My other ‘aha’ moment is the awareness that how I define freedom is not static. It is dynamic. It changes as I change.
How I determine my freedom depends on my state of mind and my level of consciousness. The more open my state of mind and the higher my level of consciousness, the freer I become, regardless of my circumstances.
That is an enlightening concept.
Originally published at https://aliciamrodriguez.substack.com.
